Media news digest archive for October 2004

Northern Europeans set their media free (October 28)
Reporters Sans Frontieres has released its annual press freedom index, ranking countries according to the liberty allowed its media. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia and Switzerland shared the top ranking. New Zealand was the first non-euro country, ranked at nine. Australia was relatively low at 41, with poor media access to refugees and media ownership issues raised as problems. We were ranked just behind Italy and Spain. The USA was at 22, apparently slipping down the list because of problems with special visas for visiting journalists and the arrest of media people during anti-Bush protests. The UK ranked at 28, partly because of the harassment faced by English journalists from Northern Ireland paramilitaries. This throws an interesting light on Ireland's top ranking. North Korea got the wooden spoon at 167, closely followed by Cuba and China. Click here for the report.

Media & the irony of politics (October 26)
High-profile media commentators are finding their lives are under similar scrutiny to that experienced by the candidates during the current USA presidential election. According to a column in USA Today, “The competitive world of 24-hour cable news has a hand in this: It needs a fresh supply of news to survive. And viewers, increasingly skeptical of the media, according to polls, are drawn to stories of news outlets or personalities tripping up.” Click here for the story.

Media City for Pakistan (October 25)
The Daily Times of Pakistan reports the government has announced plans to build a “media city” in Islamabad, modeled on the one that is now running in Dubai. Click here for the story, and here for a link to Dubai's Media City (pictured).

Set my media free - maybe (October 25)
An opinion piece in today's Sydney Morning Herald, on the potential for a shake-up in Australia's media ownership laws, concludes, “We have seen a vast change in the technology available to the media and all forms of communication. Regulation has not kept up with the technological revolution. Let us remove the shackles from the media. Let market forces prevail, subject to proper ACCC restraints. Let our media and communications industry compete in the world market.” Meanwhile a news story in the same paper warns, “The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it would rethink its attitude towards cross-media ownership and competition policy if the market lines continued to blur between the print and electronic media.”

There’s money in them thar wires (October 24)
The Australian newspaper’s Media section has run an interesting piece by Mark Day, looking at how some online publishers are making a (somewhat modest) living from websites. It begins: “For years the talk has been of the world wide web becoming the communications platform for the 21st century - a free and anarchistic means by which any of us can have a voice unconstrained by the traditional barriers and costs of publishing. The theory is fine, but as old-fashioned publishers such as Rupert Murdoch once famously pondered, ‘How do you make money out of it?’” See this link.

Quack accusations a crock (October 21)
From the New Zealand Herald: “Doctors are being scared out of practice by hostile media publicity during complaint investigations, Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson say. In his annual report released yesterday, Mr Paterson says media publicity on complaints will impact on New Zealand's health workforce shortage…There was a growing tendency for the media to publicly identify health professionals accused of negligence, even before their case had been heard, creating the impression of guilt, he said.” Click here to see the article.

Third way for media ownership? (October 19)
News Limited's website (pictured) reports that Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan has flagged that the Government would like to see a third major media player enter the market as part of any relaxation of cross-media ownership rules. According to the report: "I think it would be good to see a third force emerge and indeed some of the speculation suggests that that is in fact the way in which some of ... the negotiations (between media companies) are proceeding," she said on ABC TV. Click here for the report.

Good and bad news for media professionals - ILO (October 18)
The International Labour Organisation has released a report on the changing face of the media, analysing the opportunities and threats it presents for workers. The report, in part, says, “For some occupational groups, particularly those engaged in providing creative content, the multimedia revolution promises tremendous growth in opportunities for work as distribution channels multiply…For other workers, particularly those in craft occupations tied to particular technologies, the challenge will be to acquire new skills and adapt to new modes of working in a context of diminishing opportunity in their former specialties. Technology has erased or reduced the entrance barriers to much technical work by becoming more user-friendly. Skills have become more easily transferrable from one domain or type of equipment to another, enabling more crossover among technical and non-technical staff. The miniaturization of camera equipment has rendered obsolete the cumbersome mobile TV units of the past, replacing the camera operators, sound specialists and support personnel with, for example, single reporters carrying lightweight camcorders, or much smaller crews.” See this link.

Podcasts and satellites in radio's future (October 15)
With apologies for the non-technoid among you, we thought this piece from the USA Online Publishers Association fortnightly intelligence report was worth a read: For broadcast radio, the times are certainly a-changing. Former NPR host Bob Edwards now has a show with eight producers on XM satellite radio, while rival satellite outfit Sirius recently snagged the biggest name yet: shock jock king Howard Stern. Neither of the two biggest US satellite radio firms are making money, but so far, XM has 2.5 million subscribers at nearly $10 per month, while Sirius had only 600,000 subscribers at $12.95 per month at the time of the Stern signing. If digital satellite radio isn't good enough, now people are talking about "podcasting", where you can get audio clips via RSS, and then upload them to your iPod through software developed by former MTV VJ Adam Curry. The idea is that you could download radio programs and listen to them at your convenience on any MP3 player device. The drawbacks? Most content is nerdy technology talk shows so far, and the setup is a little complex for computer novices. Curry begs to differ. "It's not exclusive to hobbyists and webloggers," he told Wired News. "It could easily be used by Time Warner or ClearChannel."The (advertising) model is there. You sit in your car, you talk on the phone or you listen on your iPod. So I think Howard Stern would be an excellent candidate for distributing this way."

World media conspires against truth and justice (October 13)
According to the World Socialist Website, media across the globe conspired to smother debate over Iraq and key social equity issues in the run-up to, and post-mortem of, the Australian election. The story says, in part, “Above all, the media censored any voice articulating opposition to the Iraq war and the concerns of millions of people with deepening social inequality.”

A new window on TV (October 12)
Conspiracy theorists will no doubt be pleased to hear that Microsoft’s march towards world domination is taking another step forward by moving into television. The International Herald Tribune (pictured) has one of the better stories on this theme, which says, in part: “(Bill) Gates is unveiling a new version of the Windows XP Media Center, software that, combined with specially configured personal computers from dozens of manufacturers, turns the PC into a photo album, jukebox, DVD player and, most important, a TV set with a built-in video recorder. The first two editions of the software have been slow to gain acceptance in the market, representing about 3 percent of home computers sold. But Microsoft hopes to turn that around with the latest version, which will add a few features and improve the technical quality of the television picture and the video recorder; both at times have been spotty.”

US court nails UK web server (October 11)
An intriguing story has cropped up at the Magic City Morning Star website. It says, “Acting under a court order, Texas-based web hosting company Rackspace Managed Hosting handed over two UK based servers containing Indymedia websites to government agents Thursday morning. The order was apparently issued by a US District Court and served by the FBI, on behalf of a foreign government. Rackspace has refused to comment on what information had been requested or why the servers were confiscated, citing the court order.” Click here for the full story. Indymedia has also reported on the incident.

Vote may boost media stocks (October 11)
The values of media stocks in Australia are widely tipped to rise in response to the re-election of the conservative coalition government. According to the News Ltd-owned Herald-Sun in Melbourne, “The coalition is expected to push ahead with relaxing Australia's strict cross media ownership laws and limits on foreign ownership in a move that could stimulate growth in the sector.” Click here to see the story.

When finance becomes history (October 8)
The ABC's Radio National is putting together an invaluable series on various aspects of reporting. The latest edition is described this way by the broadcaster: “Do you need an MBA to report finance? Not according to business and finance reporter Alan Kohler. He suggests a history degree is the better way to go. In the case of political reporting from the capital's press gallery, what does 'off the record' really mean, and how do you break the big stories? In this program we talk to four journalists about their particular speciality. Do the basic tenets of journalism still hold for them?” See this link.

Website on pollie-watch (October 7)
The University of Pennsylvania is running a fact-checking website during the USA election. The About Us page says, “We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in US politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major US political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.” Somewhat ironically, it ended up doing a piece on how Vice-President Cheney misrepresented the site’s content and, worse, got its name wrong. See FactCheck.org.

Search engine seeks casual relationship (October 7)
Yahoo has announced it is unwilling to join the trend towards multi-media mergers and instead seeks alliances. According to this story in New Zealand website Stuff (pictured), “In an era of widespread media consolidation, internet media company Yahoo believes television networks, movie studios and music companies should look to it as a partner rather than a merger candidate, chief executive Terry Semel says.”

ABC cadetships revived (October 6)
The ABC has reinstated its cadet journalist and indigenous cadet journalist programs. See www.abc.net.au/jobs/. Cadetships were dumped some months ago in what was interpreted by some media observers (including us) as a fit of pique when the broadcaster was disappointed with its budget allocation.

Weblog versus webmag (October 5)
“Paper” is a new internet service in Korea which encourages people to create online magazines. It has met with a mixed response. According to this article in The Korea Times, “Some critics have raised concerns regarding the one-way characteristic of Paper services, saying the success of blogs is attributable to network-based interaction between writers and readers.” Click here for the full story. Speaking of weblogs, Gawker Media in the USA has just launched a number, one of which carries exclusive sponsorship from car maker Audi. This article from Click Z Network gives an insight into the commercialisation of blogging.

Media needs religion (October 4)
According to an opinion piece in the Indy Star (USA), media needs to re-engage with religion if it has any hope of understanding the society it reports on. According to the author, “We've got to find a better way to understand in a more meaningful way the impact of faith on such public issues as education, health care, the war in Iraq and same-sex marriage.” Click here for the full story.

Billion dollar accounts (October 4)
Here's a reminder from Ad Week of the spending power of large media advertisers: “Volkswagen is evaluating its global media business, the client has confirmed. The process could result in the consolidation of the estimated US$1.4 billion business at a single network.”

Is news becoming terrorism? (October 1)
There has been considerable international debate over whether media should allow itself to be used by terrorists, a question which was raised by British PM Tony Blair almost a week ago. The Daily Times of Pakistan is one of many voices that have joined in. “The media is accused of playing into the terrorists' hands by showing footage of Ken Bigley's captivity. But what of the broadcast images of the hostage's elderly mother issuing a direct plea to the terrorists? Is this not also a form of entering into dialogue with the extremists?” asks the author at this link. Meanwhile the Telegraph in London reports that Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi wants media to deny exposure to terrorists and kidnappers. The article quotes him as saying, "Terrorists feed on the media. If you cut off this oxygen, they will die very quickly."

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